“I found an oracle. Go to the Drunken Owl. There’s a tarot card in my nightstand. Give it to Rhett at the bar.”
Her knees buckle. The barrier drops. But she keeps holding on.
“Let go, Ms. Robbins!”
She gives me a sad smile as the voidstalkers start clawing at her back viciously. “It’s okay.” Still, her grip remains strong.
“Let go! Please! Adrianna!”
“Find the ora—” Blood gushes from her mouth as one of the clawed limbs punches right through the center of her chest. I can feel her soul slipping away before the light in her eyes dims bit by bit.
Nonononononononono.
The winged demon jostles me as it puts more force into its next tug. I snap. My vision darkens at the edges. All I see is black. It spreads through my veins like ink—until I become the void. There’s this insatiable hunger. A gaping hole cracked open inside me.
It only wants totake, take, take.
And I let it.
I give it everything it wants.
30
Iris
“Any news, Adrianna?” Mommy asks her pretty friend. She’s got silky blond hair and ocean-blue eyes, but she looks different when she steps outside our house—all wrinkly—as if she’s an old lady. Mommy said it’s magic; she glamours her appearance because she is in danger. She also doesn’t like kids or people. That’s why Mommy asks me to stay in my room whenever she visits. I don’t want to make her mad, but I was playing hide and seek with my new transparent friend before she arrived and I got stuck in the cupboard.
“Yeah. Though, you’re not gonna like it. Rhett brought another group from Faerie. He said there are rumors that KingOrion had the last oracle executed. She apparently had a vision he would lose the war, and let’s just say he wasn’t thrilled about that. He probably thinks if the oracle is dead, the prophecy won’t come true. Too bad prophecies don’t work that way.”
“Fuck. She was our last hope. What are we going to do?”
I inhale sharply at the bad word. Mommy never uses those around me. Well, she said it once when she stubbed her toe on the coffee table. But it was only because she was in pain.
“We have to wait for another one to be born, I guess.”
Mommy lets out a hollow laugh. “What if that never happens? Iris’s powers are growing by the day, and it’s hard keeping her hidden as is.”
“What did that seraph tell you? I don’t get why he can’t tell you the prophecy.”
“Because he’s bound by divine oath. They all are. He only paid us a visit to warn us of its existence.”
“C’mon, angel, snap out of it.”
Kaiden?
The fogginess finally dissipates. However, the feeling that my brain is being pierced by an icepick doesn’t. I grind my teeth hard to stop my dinner from making a reappearance as everything comes back in horrible flashes. A boom. Smashed glass. Voidstalkers. Ichor painting the walls. Talons sinking into me like a hot knife through butter. Red-hot pain. And Ms. Robbins. Oh God, Ms. Robbins. When the room comes into focus, I realize I’m holding Adrianna’s lifeless body to my chest, rocking back and forth while tears stream mercilessly down my face. The demons are nothing more than dried-up husks lying on the floor.
There’s so muchblood. I’m covered in it. It not only stains my skin, but it digs deep through every layer until it reaches the very essence of my soul.
Ms. Robbins is gone.
My mother’s friend isdead.
And it’s all my fault.
Sobbing, I try to wipe the crimson guilt off, but I only make it worse. “Take it off! Take it off! TAKE IT OFF!” There’s not enough air left in the atmosphere as my lungs fold in two, battling for tiny scraps.
Strong arms lift my trembling body. “Shh, I got you.” It’s all a blur as I’m carried inside my apartment. “You have to breathe. In and out. Good. That’s my girl.” When he enters the bathroom, he maneuvers me with my legs wrapped around his middle. It’s a tight fit in the small walk-in shower, but he somehow manages to turn us around so I’m facing the pounding water. When it hits my shoulders and trickles down my back, I realize why: my back is shredded. At least, that’s how it feels—as if someone took a cheese grater to it. I bite the inside of my cheek hard to stop the scream bubbling up my throat from getting out.
